24 billionaires behind the election, revealed

We don’t need to wait until Tuesday night to name a handful of billionaires among the winners in this midterm election. Recent court decisions removing limits on campaign activity unleashed a flood of spending by the politically inclined super-rich. And disclosure rules haven’t kept pace, meaning much of what those players have done to exert their influence will remain in the dark.

But Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, has done his best to comb through disclosure reports and, by combining that information with qualitative judgments about softer forms of power, come up with a ranking of our new oligarchy. West’s index accompanies his new book on the same topic, Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust. He tells Fortune it’s a “critique, not so much of the fact that they’re spending a lot of money—that’s perfectly fine—but of the lack of transparency in some of the cases, and the impact on governance.”

The names on his list will be more than familiar to our readers. Indeed, many have received the profile treatment from Fortune in recent years—or have been the subject of regular coverage. So, in the interest of shedding some light on their backstories and motivations, here’s West’s ranking, along with links to some of our coverage of the listees.

Affluent athletics: 5 sports only CEOs can afford

Many people were surprised last week to learn that Alan Eustace had successfully outdone Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner by setting a new world record for high-altitude skydiving with his death-defying jump from the edge of the stratosphere.

Even more surprising? Eustace, who leaped from a balloon more than 25 miles above the earth and fell at more than 800 miles per hour, isn’t your typical daredevil. In fact, he’s a 57-year old computer scientist who also happens to be Google’s senior vice president of knowledge.

Kudos to Eustace –who is more than a decade Baumgartner’s senior – for taking some time off from his day job to tackle such a heart-racing feat. Of course, it occurred to us that Eustace’s side-project was probably a bit expensive, as far as hobbies go. No one has said how much the feat cost Eustace, who spent several years preparing with a small team of scientists and engineers and who very well could have received outside funding. After all, Eustace needed a specially-designed spacesuit with a life-support system as well as a special parachute and helium balloon. (Baumgartner’s balloon reportedly cost about $70,000, though his jump was sponsored by Red Bull.)

In other words, it’s the kind of sport only a reasonably wealthy executive (or, in Baumgartner’s case, a corporate-sponsored daredevil) would likely take up. Here’s a look at a five other expensive sports for only the most affluent of athletes, and some of the top executives who love them.

Washington’s newest kingmakers

Inequality in election spending is nothing new. In the previous midterms, in 2010, the top 0.26% of donors gave 68% of all individual political contributions, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Much of that went to GOP candidates. That year the top 100 largest Republican donors outspent Democrats 2.5 to 1—at least in terms of disclosed contributions. In 2008 the ratio was 5 to 1. The tide, however, appears to be changing. True, in the age of dark money (think Super PACs and the like), not all political giving is transparent, but so far this election season, Democratic bankrollers have spent $77.7 million to Republicans’ $54.5 million. Here’s a look at the top five largest donors of the 2014 cycle so far. Say hello to the new big-money power brokers.

Queen Elizabeth awards Michael Bloomberg an honorary knighthood

This post is in partnership with Time. The article below was originally published at Time.com.

By Charlotte Alter, TIME

Queen Elizabeth II has made former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg an “honorary” knight of the British realm, in recognition of his work strengthening the relationship between the U.S. and the U.K.

“As Mayor of New York, as a businessman, and as a philanthropist, Mike Bloomberg has played a key role in forging transatlantic diplomatic, economic, and cultural ties,” said British Ambassador Sir Peter Westmacott in a statement.

He also credited Bloomberg with helping to create thousands of jobs in the UK by making London the European headquarters of Bloomberg LLP, and noted that the multi-billionaire has committed more than £42.4 million ($67.8 million) of philanthropic contributions in in the U.K.

The former mayor isn’t the first American to receive an honorary knighthood (only British nationals can receive the full honor). His predecessor, Rudy Giuliani, also accepted the honor, as did Steven Spielberg and Bill Gates. Hollywood star Angelina Jolie was made an honorary dame in July.

Sadly, Bloomberg will not get a sword, chain mail, or the handkerchief of a teary damsel. But thanks to him, swords are probably banned in New York City, anyway.

The inevitability of Mike Bloomberg

For those who know former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, it’s hard to view his move to reclaim the reins of his business empire, publicly unveiled late yesterday, as anything but inevitable.

Even when he had a big city to run, the billionaire remained intimately involved in the affairs of his privately owned data-and-media powerhouse, as Fortune’s coverage of Bloomberg LP last year made clear.

On several occasions, the then-mayor showed up at Bloomberg headquarters after hours for business meetings—including a presentation on a redesign of Bloomberg’s website held during a blizzard. He monitored the company from his Bloomberg terminal at City Hall. And he received weekly briefings from Dan Doctoroff, his handpicked CEO.

So despite years of public declarations by both Bloomberg and Doctoroff that it would never happen, it hardly comes as a shock that Mike (as he is known at Bloomberg LP) is reassuming command of his business at the end of 2014, just under a year after leaving office. His previous plan had been to devote the majority of his time to his extensive philanthropic activities.

The odd man out, of course, is Doctoroff, 56, the former deputy mayor who has been running Bloomberg LP since 2008. That wasn’t an easy task. Even while Mike—who owns more than 80% of the business—was at City Hall, he loomed over everything at Bloomberg LP. “People live there in the shadow of Mike,” former HR chief Melinda Wolfe told Fortune last year. “There’s a constant questioning: What would Mike do?”

That reality—along with the presence of powerful sacred cows inside the company, such as news chief Matt Winkler and terminal boss Tom Secunda—created a management nightmare for Doctoroff. He labored to change Bloomberg’s eccentric, Mike-shaped culture, starting new businesses and reining in costs in the face of changing times and slowing terminal sales.

Bloomberg remains highly profitable and kept growing, with revenues expected to reach $9 billion for 2014. But with Mike back on the premises—and constitutionally unable to play the role of second banana—the situation quickly became untenable.

“Mike is kind of like God at the company,” Doctoroff explained on Wednesday, sitting with Bloomberg at a New York coffee shop, to Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times. “He created the universe. He issued the Ten Commandments and then he disappeared. And then he came back. You have to understand that when God comes back, things are going to be different. When God reappeared, people defer.” (Through a spokesman, Bloomberg and Doctoroff both declined interviews.)

So what does this reappearance mean for the business—and the world?

Bloomberg LP’s lavish profits are driven by subscriptions to its financial-data terminals—the count is now 321,000—which cost $21,000 a year apiece. But its operations also include a huge news service, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and a TV financial-news operation—all big money-losers.

Doctoroff had moved to diversify the company, starting new businesses and installing traditional corporate management systems and controls. Yesterday, Bloomberg told the Times he didn’t expect to shift direction. “The plan that we have is the plan we should execute,” he said.

But it’s hard to imagine that the new boss (same as the old boss) reclaimed his post simply to stay the course. In his previous incarnation as CEO, Bloomberg focused almost single-mindedly on increasing the number of terminals sold, trusted his gut, hated meetings, never laid anyone off, and didn’t worry about spending.

Mike, who now occupies a fifth-floor desk at the company’s lavish Lexington Avenue headquarters, has returned to a business three times the size of the one he last ran in 2001, with 16,000 employees. It’s hard to manage exactly the same way, and Bloomberg faces fresh challenges to its lucrative terminal franchise.

But, at 72, his management approach—and passions—seem unlikely to change. As mayor, he launched a string of crusades. Upon leaving office, he declared his intention to focus on philanthropy—Forbes places his wealth at $33 billion—as a way to continue his public-policy activism, which includes supporting gun-control and anti-smoking efforts.

Now that he’s again running Bloomberg LP, with an array of powerful platforms at his disposal, expect Mike Bloomberg to remain an unconventional CEO, focused far more on amplifying his voice and boosting his influence than on the mundane business of making money.

Michael Bloomberg returning to lead the company he built

Michael Bloomberg, New York City’s former mayor, plans to return to the financial media giant he founded.

He will take over the leadership of Bloomberg LP next year following the resignation of CEO Daniel Doctoroff, the company said late Wednesday.

The decision is a stunning reversal from Bloomberg’s instance during his 12-year tenure as mayor that he would never return to his namesake business. But he said in a statement that the more time he spent reacquainting himself with the company, the more “the more exciting and interesting I found it.”

Bloomberg founded Bloomberg LP in 1981 to provide real-time financial information for stock traders and investors. It gradually grew into an international powerhouse spanning news, television, and stock market data. As majority owner, Bloomberg became one of the wealthiest scions in America worth in excess of $30 billion. He later capitalized on his entrepreneurial image and moderate politics to win three terms as New York’s mayor, leaving office just eight months ago.

Since then, Bloomberg, 72, said that he has spent a lot of time at the company, and that it prompted Doctoroff’s departure.

“I have gotten very involved in the company again and that led to Dan coming to me recently to say he thought it would be best for him to turn the leadership of the company back to me,” Bloomberg said in the statement. Doctoroff, who served in Blooomberg’s mayoral administration, joined the company as president in 2008 and then became CEO in 2011.

During Doctoroff’s tenure, Bloomberg’s revenue has grown to more than $9 billion this year, from $5.4 billion. The number of Bloomberg terminal subscribers – the company’s cash cow – rose to 321,000 from 273,000.

Doctoroff said in a statement: “I love the company and have deep respect and affection for Mike, so leaving is not an easy decision, but it is the right one for the company, for Mike and for me at this stage of my life. It is and has always been Mike’s company and given his renewed interest and energy, it only makes sense for him to retake the helm.”

Addressing investors over a lunch of Reuben sandwiches, knishes, and sushi, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani evoked the New York of a decade ago, reminiscing about a time when horse-drawn carriages were welcome in Central Park and medical marijuana was still a joke.

That pre-financial crisis era was also a happier time for many of the penny stock investors in the room, gathered for Marcum’s third annual Microcap Conference on Thursday, some of whom were fondly remembering the bull markets of 2007 and 1999.

Guiliani delivered a keynote that almost sounded like a stump speech — which some listeners commented was his best yet — and he mostly stuck to politics. He described his stance on Republican issues, criticized the Obama administration as well as New York’s current Mayor Bill de Blasio, and hinted at whether he might run for President in 2016.

At one point, New York’s 107th mayor actually raised his voice on stage as he expressed anger with U.S. foreign policy and, in particular, President Obama’s failure to stop Russia’s actions in Ukraine, which “makes America look weak,” he said.

Calling himself “more conservative on economic policy and foreign policy than almost any Republican,” Giuliani said he was disappointed in the President’s speech at West Point on Wednesday, criticizing the Administration’s plans to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and reduce the U.S. Navy “when China is challenging us in the Pacific” by pressuring Japan and Vietnam. “Does the President think the world is suddenly going to become nice?” (While some believe increased marijuana availability could have that effect, he disagreed: “It can deteriorate your brain. I used to be a narcotics prosecutor,” he said.)

Homing in on Russia’s seizure of Crimea in Ukraine, Giuliani said that, having met Vladimir Putin, he felt he understood the Russian leader and feared his intentions. Taking a trip through history, Giuliani noted that when the U.S. invaded France on D-Day during World War II, the only land the U.S. military took was a cemetery plot for dead soldiers. “When England went to France, they took half of it. When the Romans did it, they took everything in sight,” Giuliani said. “What the heck do you think the Russians are going to do, or the Chinese?

“When World War II ended, the Russians took all of Eastern Europe and put them in slavery,” Giuliani continued, pointing to Soviet restrictions on religion and other freedoms. “And what did we take? Nothing!” he yelled.

Answering audience questions, Giuliani turned his rancor toward New York City’s new Mayor de Blasio. Besides de Blasio’s spending and education policies, Giuliani took particular issue with his efforts to ban the horses that have long pulled old-fashioned carriages (often carrying sightseers) around Central Park –and used the critique to segue into another Republican refrain.

“I wish he’d keep the horses in Central Park. I think they’re nice horses,” Giuliani said. “Horses like to work. What are they going to do with the horses? They’re going to send them out to a farm somewhere and they’re going to die of boredom.

Giuliani expressed liberal views on abortion, gay marriage, and unions, which he swore he wants to preserve. “I like unions, unions are good,” he said. “I even belong to a union. I belong to SAG, because of my great work in Anger Management,” he noted, referring to his cameo in the Adam Sandler movie that earned him membership in the Screen Actors Guild.

Finally, Giuliani arrived at his biggest applause point. While 20 years ago he would have suggested that “the answer to the economy” was to lower taxes, he now believes “the real answer is to cut regulations by half,” he said. “The way we were taxing ourselves out of business, we are now regulating ourselves out of business, regulating ourselves to the point of ridiculousness and insanity.”

So, then, what’s Guiliani’s solution? He told a story about a judge that used to tell lawyers who submitted long briefs to “give me the best 20 pages.” Giuliani said he would take the best 40% of federal regulations and throw the rest away “and see how we do.”

For many of the Giuliani supporters listening, the million-dollar question was what it would take for him to make a bid for the Oval Office in 2016. To that, the former mayor played coy: “I have no idea. Give me $100 million dollars?” he said, swearing that he hasn’t considered it — yet. “I’m only thinking about 2014 right now, but at some point next year, I’ll answer that question.” From the sound of his speech this week, the answer may very well be “yes.”

Bloomberg News reaffirms ban on writing about Mike Bloomberg

When Michael Bloomberg retires as New York’s mayor in January after 12 years in office, it’s unclear what exactly he’ll do (beyond claiming a desk back at Bloomberg LP, the financial data giant he founded). Whatever he does, he’s sure to keep making news.

You can count on him to keep fighting for new gun-control laws. He could well continue to push his public-health initiatives against sugary drinks and smoking. And he’s certain to make headline-grabbing charitable gifts: He’s worth an estimated $31 billion, and gave $350 million just in 2013 to Johns Hopkins (bringing his lifetime total giving to his alma mater over $1 billion).

But there’s one place you won’t read about any of it: Bloomberg News. Since the creation of its journalism arm in 1990, Bloomberg LP — 85% owned by Mike (as he is referred to at the company and will be referred to here to avoid confusion) — has banned coverage of the company and its owner on the grounds that it would be a conflict of interest. Bloomberg News made a limited exception for covering Mike’s official actions as New York’s mayor. But his return to private life will bring an end to all that.

That’s the result, Fortune has learned, of a decision by Bloomberg News editor-in-chief Matt Winkler to reject an internal recommendation urging the company to change its policy. “I see no reason to change a policy that was conceived at the inception of Bloomberg News, and has served us well,” Winkler told Fortune in late October, during an interview for an in-depth report on Bloomberg LP. (“The trouble at Bloomberg,” subscription required; Fortune is a competitor of Bloomberg News and its magazines.) The company this week confirmed that Winkler’s view will prevail.

Covering yourself, of course, is awkward, but every other major media organization does it anyway. It’s standard journalism practice.

At Bloomberg News, the ban on self-coverage has remained a formal part of The Bloomberg Way, Winkler’s all-encompassing rulebook, even as both the company and its majority shareholder became more newsworthy. Over time, this required ever-greater journalistic contortions.

When Mike became New York’s mayor in 2002, for example, Winkler put a reporter in City Hall. But the coverage sometimes conspicuously excluded criticism of the mayor reported by every newspaper in town, as Editor & Publisher noted in a 2011 story discussing coverage of the mayor’s absence during a paralyzing blizzard.

In 2012, Bloomberg News launched a global billionaires’ list, to rival the annual Forbes ranking. Although Forbes’ most recent version places Michael Bloomberg as the tenth-wealthiest American, with a $31 billion fortune, the mayor doesn’t appear in Bloomberg News’ tally. A special note explains that he “won’t be considered for this ranking” because “Bloomberg News editorial policy is to not cover Bloomberg LP.” Similarly, the company’s coverage of the financial data industry doesn’t include Bloomberg, even though it has the single biggest share of that market.

In August, as part of a formal review of Bloomberg News practices triggered by a scandal in which company journalists were revealed to have special access to certain customer data, Bloomberg editor-at-large Clark Hoyt, a former New York Times ombudsman, advised ending the “no-cover” practice.

Hoyt noted that “other major news organizations take a different approach” and that Bloomberg had, despite its policy, provided one-sided and “extensive” coverage — “far more than competitive news services” — of the company’s own battle to launch a swaps trading platform.

In his list of formal recommendations, Hoyt urged the company to reconsider its policy, while adding that his “preferred course would be for [Bloomberg News] to initiate coverage of the company, stipulating what will and won’t be covered and balancing the desire to cover newsworthy subjects with respect for Bloomberg tradition and culture.”